Wednesday, April 3, 2013

HOW BASEBALL BEGAN??

Baseball has been played in the United States since the founding of the country. Children all over America love to play baseball Adults play baseball too. And millions of people go to professional baseball games to watch their favorite teams. Where did baseball come from?
Some people say that a man named Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball in Cooper’s town, New York. These people say that Doubleday based his game on a child’s game4 called ‘One Old Cat’.
In England, thought, a game called ‘baseball’ was played more than 200 years ago. It was played by two teams. A person on one team threw a small ball. Another person, from the other team, used a bat to try and hit the ball. If the batter hit a ball, he ran to a base. If he ran to all the bases, he scored a run.
That sounds a lot like today’s baseball. But another English game, called ‘rounders’, also had batters. There batters tried to hit a soft ball as far as they could. Then they tried to run ta a base. A person on the other team could throw the ball at the runner. If the runner was hit, he was out. If the batters tried to hit the ball three times and missed every time, he was given out.
Rounders sound a lot like our game baseball, too. As far as we know, the baseball that is played today in the United State, Canada and Japan is a combination of these two English game.  From the game of the rounders, modern baseball took the idea of tagging a runner to put him out. It also took the idea for having three chances to hit the ball.
The game of baseball as it is played today has things that are different from other the game. Many years ago, people realized that players could be hurt if baseballs were thrown at them. So it was decided that a player could only touch another player with the ball.
By not allowing a players to throw a ball at other players, a harden ball could now be used in the game. Using a hard ball made it possible to hit the ball much farther. The field could be much bigger. Finally, people began writing rules for the game. They used some rules from rounders. The first baseball rules were published in 1845A.D.
Later, more rules were added about how big baseball could be and how much they could weigh. Teams began to form. Many cities had teams. The teams from different cities played one another.
In 1869, more than a hundred years ago, the first professional baseball team was formed. Players were paid to play baseball. Talented players could make a living having fun. Today, baseball is also a very popular game in Japan.

No comments:

Post a Comment